America: Land of the free and home to the most expensive college tuition in the world. Each year, we Americans have to pay more and more to better educate ourselves to find jobs that pay less and less. So the question that everyone is asking is: why?

Well, there isn’t one simple answer; there’s actually a collection of reasons as to why this is happening. For starters, with the rise in demand for higher education, universities have become more competitive, forcing them to spend more money on better facilities and amenities to attract more students. Next, you have to factor in the inflation of administration costs for these universities, meaning the increase in salary for administrators, support staff, maintenance workers, etc. However, the most significant driver in rising U.S. education costs over the last two decades has been the steady decline in state funding for colleges and universities.

So what does this mean? Well, essentially, universities and colleges all over the U.S. have had to rely increasingly on tuition revenue to cover expenses because the state is offering them less funding to cover the students. But this still doesn’t make any sense, because we, the people, fund the state with our taxes, so wouldn’t we still be paying for our education in the end with increased funding? Well, yes and no. 

Lowering everyone’s taxes always seems like a great idea, but in reality, it really hurts the vast majority of Americans when it comes to things like college education. See, when we lower the tax for everyone, lower- and middle-class taxpayers suffer the most. While we may save a few thousand dollars in taxes, the wealthiest 1% benefit from savings of billions. Meaning we’re losing billions in state funding for our education.

“Look, everyone, Ray wants to raise our taxes. Let’s go burn his house down!” Listen, it may seem like it’ll hurt you, but in reality, if you don’t want to pay $200,000 for your children’s college education, you need to listen to me. The main subjects of this tax increase would be the wealthiest 1% in the state, people who don’t have to worry about paying for their children’s education because they could pay their grandkids’ grandkids’ college tuition. Why should the wealthiest individuals in a state be taxed at a smaller proportion of their salary than someone who’s making $60k a year? It’s simply not fair. And for those of you who are fuming while reading this, getting ready to protect your billionaires, think of how your parents will end up paying tens of thousands more for your education because you want to help billionaires save some of their generational wealth. 

Look, I’m not saying we take all their money, but holding the wealthiest 1% accountable to pay the same percentage of taxes we do is essential in the goal of attaining affordable education in the U.S. This isn’t political or some revolutionary mindset or rocket science; this is common sense. Do you want your college tuition amount not to end in five zeros? Pushing the wealthiest to pay their fair share in taxes so we can increase our state funding in education is how we do this. 

Wake up, people, because soon enough, only a small fraction of Americans will truly be able to afford their education.